Deep in Deviskaryl's forest, where people rarely go, there's a lake, unremarkable but for the beach on the west side, where she's been practicing the sort of gentle sandy slope and tiered dropoff that makes for the best swimming hole. She's got her technique down just about perfectly, ready to deploy on beaches needing a touchup in a few weeks when summer is over, and is just practicing for speed and efficiency now; she pauses in her work when the sun begins to set, watching it through the augmented eyesight of dozens of cats, only a sliver of her attention still on the lake, considering how she might shave off another minute or another bit of effort.

"Not very much compared to what you're used to, I expect. There've been a couple of big improvements on waterwheel machines recently, though, and people are working on new designs to take advantage of that, and I hear someone has come up with something that makes books without having to write them out, but we don't have one yet."

"I'd guess that's a type of printing press. The older ones used fully carved pages while the newer ones have a bunch of individual letters that could be moved. In my time we've replaced both with machines that can place ink precisely where you want it based on designs made on things called computers."

"Yeah, I don't entirely understand how computers or printers work myself. I think printers need special inks that don't bleed to work. Computers are... somehow they use really tiny arrangements of electrical stuff to do math and then build on that math to do much more complicated things."

"...oh, that is interesting. I still don't see how you'd get from there to lightning, but it does suggest how you might get math from a machine - it'd be something like a very simple abacus, where the bead triggers part of the machine to act somehow." She considers. "If the lightning is just to power it somehow, we might not need that at all, I bet it'd be possible to make a waterwheel machine that worked that way."

"Waterwheels are, well, a big wheel, turned by a stream of water, usually a river, and then you can add a shaft and gears to power any kind of machine that can work on turning power. The simplest kinds grind flour or draw water, but they're useful for lots of things - mostly that kind of mechanical work, pounding ore to be smelted or grinding wood for paper or what have you, but there's no reason you couldn't use it for something where the machine itself is the interesting part."

"You'll want Miller's Pool, for waterwheel machines, they have plenty of them and won't mind showing them off at all; I'll get a prototype set up there myself once I have an idea of how to make it work."

"Mmhmm. If you're going to be staying for a while you'll probably want to set up shop there yourself, that's where the inventors are and I expect they'll be the most interested in your magic, both learning it and finding uses for it. Cresthill is still nice, though, just a bit slower paced."

"I don't have many inventors, mind. But if you're going to stay, I can get word out, especially once it's common knowledge here; plenty of people will be willing to move for magic as flexible as yours."

"I want to be careful about giving out my artifacts, just because I'd want to be more careful about making sure they can't be easily used to hurt people. I tend to leave myself that option just in case. But otherwise that sounds interesting."

"Oh, certainly. I'm not imagining you're even necessarily going to teach everyone you can. But even if there are only a few people who can use your magic - if they're here, people will want to move here to work with them, even if they can't be one."